Desklabel
Sat Aug 29, 2009 · 188 words

Just a little something I needed for work - a simple and consistent way to set the desktop backround of a server. Specs were simple - should be a solid color, with the same resolution as my display and should have some way to help me identify the host in question (like the DNS name or any arbitrary text).

So I wrote Desklabel. The interface is so straight-forward that it doesn't make any sense to waste time explaining it. And for the scripters, here's an AppleScript to use this automagically:

set png to "/tmp/" & (do shell script "uuidgen") & ".png"
do shell script "curl -o " & png & "  http://unflyingobject.com/desklabel/index.php -d w=1280 -d h=800 -d t=$(hostname)"
tell application "Finder"
set the desktop picture to POSIX file png
end tell
do shell script "rm " & png

If you leave out the “t” variable it'll just return your public DNS name. You should get a different color every time you run it. Set the r, g and b variables if you want something specific (my favorite is 60/60/60).

And yes, the font is awesome. It's called Bebas.


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